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Relatives approach 100th day since loss of Flight 370

Zhang Qian, 28, right, waits near the central Beijing office of Malaysia Airlines Wednesday. She seeks the video footage of her husband checking in to Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on March 8. Hu Xiufang, 63, wants a subsidy to help her cope with the loss of four family members.(Photo: Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY)

BEIJING – Zhang Qian seeks video footage of her husband checking in for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Hu Xiufang wants funds to help her cope without four family members. Liu Weijie demands "the truth" about the fate of the jet — and his missing wife.

None of them got what they hoped for Wednesday after yet another frustrating day for relatives of Chinese passengers on the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing whose disappearance March 8 remains one of aviation's deepest mysteries. The jetliner carried 239 passengers and crew, including 153 Chinese citizens.

Angry at what they describe as a total lack of information and support during recent weeks of a fruitless, three-month search, more than 20 Chinese relatives tried to visit the airline's central Beijing office. Police and security guards blocked their entry throughout Wednesday, and airline staff refused to meet them or answer questions.

The relatives are looking for news as they approach 100 days since losing contact with their loved ones. In Chinese culture, the 100th day after a death is a key date for mourning, yet several relatives insisted they retain hope their family members may return alive, as no physical evidence proves the jetliner crashed.

A seabed search for the jet in the southern Indian Ocean found no trace of it.

Zhang Qian, 28, resigned from her job in a Beijing company's logistics department. "Earning money is not important anymore, only getting my husband back," she said Wednesday of Wang Houbin, also 28, who had traveled to Malaysia to organize a calligraphy exhibition.

"I'm always nervous when he flies on business trips, either in China or abroad, and I always call him before takeoff and after landing, but this time, I don't know why, I was very relaxed," Zhang recalled. She seeks airport footage of Wang checking in to the flight. "Why can't Malaysia Airlines provide this? It should not be secret, and we must verify everything," she said.

Hu Xiufang, 63, loved the bustle of family life with her son, daughter-in-law and their two children, ages 2 years and 8 months. "The five of us lived together, now it's just me, in the empty house," said Hu, whose husband died from lung cancer last year.

Her son often traveled for work, but his tourist trip In March to Thailand via Malaysia was the first time he took his family abroad, Hu said.

(Photo: Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY)

Like many other relatives, Hu makes regular five-hour round-trips to a remote location in Beijing's far northern suburbs, where Malaysia Airlines and the Chinese government maintain a temporary liaison and support office. "Malaysia Airlines doesn't respect us. When we go there, we don't get answers or water, food or even a place to sit down," she said.

That office replaced the accommodation and consoling services the airline provided until May 2 in Beijing's Lido Hotel. "They never answer our questions," said Dai Shuqin, 61, whose sister and four other family members were on the flight. "We are nervous, anxious, helpless and suffering injustice," said Dai, who fainted beside the airline's suburban office Monday. "More people will faint, maybe somebody will die, but no one cares. I want to let our president know and see what his attitude is," she said. "I'm so angry my lungs may explode."

As some relatives seek living subsidies from Malaysia Airlines, others are deciding whether to file lawsuits in the next 18 months, probably in the USA, said Jiang Hui, 41, an IT worker and representative of the Chinese families. "I'm over 40 years old but never knew what suffering really meant," said Jiang, whose mother Jiang Cuiyun, 71, was returning from a Malaysian holiday. "Over the past three months, now I know its meaning," he said.

(Photo: Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY)

Like many other Chinese passengers on the flight, Zhang Liqin, 43, was on the homeward leg of her very first trip outside China.

"It's her first time abroad. She was very happy before leaving," said her husband, Liu Weijie, 41, a Beijing businessman. "I guess senior officials in the Malaysian government and Malaysia Airlines may know the truth, but they dare not make it public for some reasons," he said. "I just want to know, and I still have hope. I think they have no solid evidence that the plane crashed in the south Indian Ocean."

Though Malaysia Airlines has offered compensation, relatives such as Zhang Lixia refuse to accept the worst scenario.

"We're looking for people, not compensation," said Zhang, 55, whose 27-year-old daughter was on board. "The plane must be on land, as there is zero floating debris. The longer they can't find it, the more we feel there is hope."